Outside the Summit

Summit Web 2.0 has the leading experts in this crazy virtual world of social media speaking all under one roof in a jam packed three day technical journey. As I sit here in San Francisco’s luxurious Palace Hotel hoping to ease drop a savvy conversation between two “experts” I realize any disappoint experienced from not making the cut for an exclusive invitation to this event is simply not warranted. Here are all these “suits” with thick rolodexs and fancy words but still lies the billion dollar question – “How do these sites make any money”. They don’t know. If these experts did they’d be in Vegas living the life of surplus cash rather than here making sure everyone knows how expert they are. We all want that glorified 12-24 year old demographic. We want their parents cash. So why not just ask – “What will you spend on?” You listened to Ronald McDonald and still invest in a burger with Happy Meal smiles so what burger will you buy from me. Why not ask Mister Wallet, “What do you want to spend your ad dollars on?” Instead of finding all the ways to be viral so we all become this KMart no one shops at, (as sited in “The Purple Cow” by Seth Godin), why not start creating for the customer rather than fishing for one. Don’t feel too bad though, I mean the confernece does cost 4 grand a pop so, after all…someone is monetizing.